I was clearing out my fabric about 6 months ago and this fabric was added to the Chuck It Out pile (it got to a grand total of 10 pieces of fabric out of a stash of nearly 200 that I didn’t actually want.) About 2 months later, we did actually come to chucking it out, we had had ambitious plans about selling stuff on Facebook sales communities, but in the end what was chucked out was so little and all the shit quality stuff, that there didn’t seem much point doing anything with it but sending it to the recycling bin.

But Jon stopped me and persuaded me to look again at this piece. I bout it up Goldehawk Road about 5 or 6 years ago, before I discovered the local fabric stall, & almost immediately decided I made a mistake, it seemed quite primitive and 90’s to me at the time, & I didn’t think the fabric quality was great. However as Jon pointed out when I tried to get rid of it, extremely 90’s and bold florals is very heavily in fashion at the moment. & he persuaded me to at least wash it and see what I thought then.

So I washed the fabric, & it came out an awful lot softer than before, & I was in need of a basic Sewaholic Renfrew top, same as millions of times before (here, here & here) as the washing was backing up…..tangentially, it is one of the extra paradoxes of living in a small flat that no one ever admits to, but if you don’t have a garden to dry clothes in, & you don’t have room for a tumble dryer, all your clothes have to dry on a clothes rack in the flat, & a cycle of washing can take up to a week to dry in grimy weather, so you need to have twice as many flipping clothes as you would need if you lived in an actual house , & of course in a tiny flat, you don’t really have room to store them! ……..so I decided to make it up quickly and if it was shit I’d only wasted 3 hors of time so it didn’t matter anyway.

I was moderately rigorous about pattern matching, but tbh, its a wavey stripe, those are the ones that on the Great British Sewing Bee they go ‘are you sure you want to use that?’ so I matched all the main points and then didn’t really worry about it too much. In the event, I aced it!

Its not 100% if you are being nitpicky, but its the same under the arms and on the other side, & actually thats a lot better than I was expecting it to turn out.

Actually the same could be said for the whole of the top. I tried it on, & my response was like “wow, this actually really suits me!”

So now it is in constant rotation in my wardrobe (albeit it takes it 2 1/2 weeks to get through the laundry and ironing pile) the jersey is still a bit stiff, but actually that means it isn’t at all transparent (An issue with white jersey) and it will wear well with age. I am so happy with Jon for making me look again at what is actually a really useful bit of fabric.

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/the-top-that-nearly-didnt-happen/feed/0euphoricstimuliIMG_6845IMG_6834IMG_6797IMG_6836Dress for a weddinghttps://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/06/19/dress-for-a-wedding/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/06/19/dress-for-a-wedding/#respondMon, 19 Jun 2017 13:54:54 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/?p=2365]]>Haven’t posted for absolutely ages. Was too busy during may doing Me Made May on Instagram, which doesn’t say much for my social media ability, but come on this blog only gets updated once or twice a month, I’m clearly not good at it anyway.

Then there was the inevitable period of bleugh when I got some kind of random minor illness and my Chronic Fatigue kicked up and I spent two weeks in bed feeling like shit and unable to blog.

– so yeah, way behind on the updating.

Which kind of sucks cuz I have actually been sewing.

So the dress in question was a crazy undertaking. I made it in 5 days including 2 for washing and ironing the fabric (I am that damn responsible!).

So end of April was our best friends wedding. Both the bride and groom were both separately our ex-housemates and also Jons ex-bandmates, so it was an important one for us, but by the week before I kind of hadn’t sorted out anything to wear. Then the Friday 8 days before the wedding I swung by the fabric stall in Lewisham and found this gorgeous black and floral fabric just calling my name and an idea was born.

My first idea was a Tilly and the buttons Martha dress, as I’d seen some top end high street dresses with a similar floral fabric in a similar pattern and wanted to replicate the look, but then I was at knitting group on the Sunday (shout out to city stitchin) and was talking it through and had a photo of the fabric on my phone (which it seems to have helpfully lost) and we decided that although a dress in that style would look gorgeous (& I had infact already cut out the pattern pieces the night before) it was maybe not a great long term option as the style was so current that it might look very dated by next year, & if you are going to go to all the effort of making something yourself it needs to have longevity.

So I went for the Francoise dress , also by Tilly, instead, to channel my inner Wednesday Adams.

So the wedding was on Saturday, and that left me 4 days to cut out the pattern, buy some extra bits from Lewisham that I needed (the pattern has a contrast collar and I decided to add a ribbon bow to pick out the yellow in the fabric.), & then make the damn thing, & to top it all its a pattern I haven’t used before.

But I managed it! luckily my health held up, on the Monday I managed to cut the paper pattern and the pieces of the fabric out, go to Lewisham to pick up the bits I needed and stick the contrast fabric in the washing machine and do all the stay stitching.

On Tuesday I did a late nighter and got it done apart from the collar and the hem.

& then on Wednesday night we went round to the bride and grooms flat for drinkies and the bride asked me to wear my dragon dress instead! Which actually I was not at all offended by because getting away with wearing that dress to an actual wedding is awesome!

So here is my floral dress sitting forlornly on a hanger the day before my friends wedding looking unloved….

I used the same yellow ribbon to hem it as I used for the neck bow. I would love to say this is a deliberate design detail, but actually its a case as this being a Tilly dress, and me being 5’9″ its somewhat on the short side so I used a ribbon binding to eek out as much length from the seam allowance as I could possibly manage. I did know this would be the case before I made it but I was in such a damn hurry to get it going I totally forgot to add the extra 3 inches or so till it was too late.

So yeah, I did get some wear out of it though during Me Made May & both times tried to get some decent photos. I’ve got to say that was one of the most variable months weather wise ever, the first photos I took whilst it was cold and arctic earlier in the month, and so were indoors by artificial lighting….

Then I wore it again on a family holiday to Brighton when it was lovely weather….

But it was super windy when we took the photos, so I’ve decided to share both lots….anyway, it gives you the general idea.

As far as the fabric and the pattern goes….

The fabric is apparently scuba crepe, so basically one of those absolutely gorgeous, but don’t think too hard about what its made of fabrics the lewisham stall specialises in (they do occasionally have actual wools and cottons,) it washes lovely, but likes a cool iron, if its too hot it fades the print a bit, so it’s a pain from the ironing point of view.

The pattern I will make again, but I had to make some quite major adjustments to make it fit. It is always a warning sign when all the reviews and images of versions of a popular pattern on the internet do not include many plus size people. There were about 3 images (out of hundreds) and all the girls who seem to have got it to work have much larger and lower chests than mine. I cut the pattern according to the measurements but had to do some serious messing about with the darts to make it not bag massively on the chest. With hindsight I would have cut the top a size smaller, but it fit perfectly on the waist and hips. I’m a size 40C bra btw incase anyone actually ever uses this as a review as to whether to make this or not, & I think for a pattern where I’m near the top of the size range that is usually industry standard (once you get on to dedicated plus size patterns I’m often on the smaller end of cup sizes). Luckily I recorded what I actually did with the darts on the pattern as soon as I got it to work, so it should be relatively easy for me to remake this.

There was also an issue with the neck facing. I’m not sure if it was me being in a hurry, though I swear I cut the correct piece as it looked wrong to me so I double checked which line you cut, but the back facing pattern pieces ended way too short. I fudged this rather than recutting as I was tight for time, it looks fine from the outside, just it isn’t the prettiest inside, but tbh, with all the messing about with the darts I had to do, this is very much a wearable muslin anyway. As long as I actually remember, this should be very easy to fix with the next version anyway.

Apart from that, yeah, the length and the collar doesn’t extend all the way round the back, (though it looks fine on) but those have both been covered extensively as issues on other peoples blogs.

*******************************************

Anyway, I have one more garment already made and photographed to post up here, I’ve still got to do a piece about the box of lace we found on the street, & I’ve two more makes cut out and ready to sew once some new jersey needles arrive off Amazon and this damn heatwave goes away. So hopefully my blogging skills over the next few weeks will be a little more functional than they have been.

Goes to sit in the fridge before I stick so hard to this chair I can’t be peeled off it.

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/06/19/dress-for-a-wedding/feed/0euphoricstimuliIMG_6249IMG_6315IMG_6310IMG_6295IMG_6609IMG_6595IMG_6606IMG_6603Sci Fi Weekend 2017https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/sci-fi-weekend-2017/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/sci-fi-weekend-2017/#respondWed, 03 May 2017 16:17:05 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/?p=2325]]>So this was about 3 weeks ago now. Last time we went 4 years ago I went absolutely mental for a couple of months making costumes, then got really drunk and was not really in a position to photograph any of them well. This year I was much more relaxed about the whole costume thing. Firstly, I’m not really a cosplayer. I don’t really like doing other peoples characters, & I don’t like putting a whole lot of effort into something I’m only going to wear like once every 4 years. Secondly I have a whole load of generic fantasy/goth/steampunk outfits I’m not getting enough chance to wear at the moment, so it made sense to do something fun with a couple of them rather than make anything specifically for the convention. Also Jon was very much not in the mood for dressing up, so I didn’t have to make anything for him either.

Ironically, in the year I decided not to bother, we had a lovely outside veranda with really good lighting at the cabin we were staying in, so I got massively better photos of stuff than last time.

First up on the Friday was my steampunk dress, with added thermal cuz the weather in Wales that weekend was bitter. (annoyingly London was having a bit of a heatwave) I quite like this outfit, I think its my best attempt yet with that dress, but I’m still not sold on the dress itself. It started life as an attempt to make my own version of a dress by Juliette et Justine and really didn’t work out how I’d planned. (details here) I’m really proud of drafting the pattern myself and think its a gorgeous dress, but it really isn’t massively me. Looking at the picture maybe I need a better hat. The corset is a favourite though, it is from Fan Plus Friend, and even though it only just fits, I love it.

Saturday…

I love this outfit so much. Its the dress I made for my witches costume this Halloween , but with a flower/horn crown I made a few years ago for the Goblin Kings Ball, but then did the whole getting drunk and forgetting to take photos thing (I am such a shit millennial sometimes!) I haven’t really had the opportunity to wear it since.

I bought the basic plastic horns ready attached to a headband from someone off etsy but then I painted the horns, glued the flowers on and padded the headband – even with padding I can only really wear it on top of a wig as the horns make the headband super heavy and pinchy.

The wig is from My Lolita Dress,a taobao resale site. By the time you’ve factored in insane shipping from China costs it is quite expensive to buy them from there, but all the ones I’ve bought the quality has been really good, & they have some interesting colours and styles. I made the mistake last sci fi weekend I attended of buying a cheap wig off eBay and it isn’t really worth it. It has only lasted one or two wears, is really thin and is tangled as hell. I want to replace it, but annoyingly haven’t found a decent long white one on any of the better quality wig sites yet, even though I’ve been looking.

Oh yeah, I thought I’d include this photo as its a really nice one of Liz, Ian and I. It was ultimately a really fun weekend, though my ME wasn’t great and I didn’t really appreciate a 7hr car journey there and back. Probably won’t go again to that specific convention for another few years, but as there are zero opportunities to do dress up/goth stuff in London at the moment (there is still a bit of a goth scene focused on Islington, but it has become very very local, for people who live round there and cliquey, and most of the big goth and steampunk costume parties have stopped now. The ones for queer people and on the fetish scene are still going strong I believe, but they are not really our sort of thing.) we are hoping to get to other conventions/festivals/weekends over the next couple of years. But I am really glad to have stood by my decision not to make anything for the Scifi weekend specifically and also that I have decided no alternative stuff this year, I have plenty enough stuff to play with already, & the stuff I am making so far this year I have been really happy with.

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/sci-fi-weekend-2017/feed/0euphoricstimuliIMG_6164IMG_6180IMG_6173Me made May 2017https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/me-made-may-2017/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/me-made-may-2017/#respondMon, 01 May 2017 15:29:41 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/me-made-may-2017/]]>So given I try to wear the stuff I’ve made as a preference anyway, I’ve decided to have a go at Me Made May. (For non sewing people, a sewing blog thing started by Zoe whose blog is here ) I am going to try and wear an item of homemade clothing every day. I do so 5 days out of 7 anyway probably, so I reckon my biggest problem is going to be pinning down Jon to take the photos rather than wearing the actual stuff.

Anyway. I am doing it on Instagram, not on here, cuz it is a lot easier, & also less spammy cuz although I would like to post more than I do, I reckon a post a day is pushing it a bit.

My instagram username is also euphoricstimuli. I’ve just spent ten minutes trying to work out what my URL is to post a direct link and failed miserably. But if you search for that you’ll find me.

In the last week I have made another item of clothing (which has yet to be worn, let alone blogged) and I have two other blog posts to catch up on. So more actual content soon.

In the meantime here is my first Me Made May picture, my Debbie Bliss Riva shrug, I am having a pyjama day today as we’ve been at a wedding in Leicester all weekend, but I tend to use this instead of a dressing gown …

Join the dark side, find me on Instagram! ☠️

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/me-made-may-2017/feed/0euphoricstimuliImproving on Primarkhttps://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/improving-on-primark/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/improving-on-primark/#respondWed, 12 Apr 2017 09:57:20 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/?p=2261]]>I haven’t bought anything at Primark for about 5 years now (I got fed up with stuff disintegrating in the wash and having to put the zips and buttons back in pretty much as soon as I’d bought something) however I did used to acquire the odd amazing item.

one such item was this black and white skater dress I picked up about 6 or 7 years ago.

on the hanger it doesn’t look like much and, its come apart at the side seam so much its probably unwearable these days. But back in the day it was one of my star dresses. It cost me about £3 but everyone who saw me in it was like, ‘omg thats a really nice dress, & really suits you.’

However I was never satisfied with it. The lace on it was virtually made out of dishcloth string, the polka dots were painted on as raised lump rather than dyed or woven into the fabric, & the skirt was a good couple of inches too short.

(close up of the skanky lace and painted on dots – now massively cracked and faded)

So the idea of remaking this came to me a fairly long time ago. Basically as I came across the Kitschy-cooo lady skater dress, which I have made multiple times in its long sleeved incarnation (here, here, here and here) I also picked up a random job lot of lace collar appliqués from the local fabric stall. The issue then was finding a decent polkadot jersey to make it in.

This was harder than you’d think. For about two years the only options on the fabric stall I came across were also painted on dots, annoyingly so were the options at Rolls and Rems, which charges a lot more, so I really wasn’t impressed. I tried looking on the internet, but the only fabric that made it clear the dots weren’t painted on was some horrifically expensive Japanese double sided fabric, which looked lovely, but far too decadent for what I needed. But eventually I found quite a small quantity of jersey from the fabric stall and although the dots were the wrong size it was finally a black and white polkadot that was good enough quality! (annoyingly I came across a larger quantity of jersey with the right size properly printed polkadots halfway through making the dress. Sods law I suppose!)

So here it is next to the original…..

Not a completely identical match, but in terms of quality and length a massive improvement.

The only mistake I made with this dress was to leave the cut out fabric lying around for a bit too long. Thus I had to re-iron it when I finally got round to using it, & it stretched a little. But it wasn’t anything I couldn’t fix easily during construction.

& here it is on….

Excuse the fat arms, I would normally wear it with some sort of cardigan. But I’m really proud of this, it looks exactly the kind of flattering and impressive the Primark number did when it was new. Only a lot more expensive/classy looking than if it came from Primark. But of course I only spent about £5 on the materials (Thank-you very much fabric stall) so its not actually any more expensive. This is why I love sewing!

At the moment I’m working on another cowl neck top – boring but necessary. I have pictures from SFX to post that I haven’t got round to yet, & Jon and I picked up the most amazing vintage wooden card index box from the street the other day – filled with lace! This will obviously need fixing up and blogging about at some point.

Oh yeah, I am now also on Instagram, as euphoricstimuli , about bloody time basically!

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/improving-on-primark/feed/0euphoricstimuliIMG_6209IMG_6213IMG_6196IMG_6197IMG_6201Fashionable velvet sweatshirthttps://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/fashionable-velvet-sweatshirt/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/fashionable-velvet-sweatshirt/#commentsTue, 21 Feb 2017 11:35:16 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/?p=2255]]>So back in September last year when the September editions of all the magazines came out, the things I was most taken with were the burgundy velvet sweatshirts that appeared everywhere.

Of course when it actually came to buying one, they are all £60-£80 plus and even the ones made for blokes I doubt would actually fit me. Certainly no one to my knowledge was making a reasonably priced plus size version.

So I got the idea to make one, but was struggling to find reasonably priced stretch velvet online (no matter how nice it looks in the photograph, do not go buying stretch velvet off eBay- big mistake) . Eventually I found a load on a reputable fabric website, but it was £12 a meter so before I bought it I thought I’d check the local fabric stall just invade they had anything suitable…..

And completely hit the jackpot. Ok it wasn’t burgundy, but I picked up 4m of the most beautiful lavender pink stretch velvet for about 4 or 5 quid a meter (I forget exactly). It was nicely thick anyway but was backed with a black stretch fabric that had been fused on, so it was really really stable and good quality.

So then all it came down to was finding time to make the thing. I wanted to do it asap as I don’t know how long the sweatshirts are going to look current for so I was determined to get some wear out of it this winter.

The pattern I decided to use is the Sewaholic Patterns Fraser Sweatshirt, partly as it was what I had in my stash anyway, partly because I’ve used Sewaholic patterns before and had good results, especially as they are designed for pearshaped ladies, & partly because when I read the reviews of the pattern it was supposed to be exactly the same construction technique as the Renfrew Top, which I’ve made multiple times, so I was reasonably confident about getting a good result first time.

The downside of the pattern is that looking at it on other people, the length runs a bit short, & although on smaller girls the sweatshirt appears lovely and fitted, on larger girls it’s a little boxy. Both of which were issues with my finished version, but I’m happy enough with how it turned out.

Anyway, I agonised for ages as to which version of the pattern to make, I had strong inclinations towards a black Peter Pan collar as I thought that was a colour combination that worked extremely well with this version I found through google image search. But at the last moment I decided to leave it plain, which is a decision I’m really glad I made as it lets the fabric really look luxurious on its own.

Anyway, pictures….

This is it hanging on the wardrobe, which is an unedited photo and very much true to colour with what it looks like.

The next 3 photos of it on me I have messed around with filters a bit as I was feeling a bit insecure and didn’t think they were the best photos in the world. (I don’t normally bother with them)

As I said, it’s a little short, if I made it again I’d legnthen the bottom by about two inches, as I’m not sure it hits me at the most flattering point, & I know they look better but I am really not used to full length sleeves, I’m so used to 3/4 length I automatically shove them up my arm.

But overall I am really happy with how it’s turned out and with the pattern, & I’ve worn it so many times it kind of needs a wash already.

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/fashionable-velvet-sweatshirt/feed/1euphoricstimuliChristmas 2014- 3 years latehttps://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/02/10/christmas-2014-3-years-late/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/02/10/christmas-2014-3-years-late/#respondFri, 10 Feb 2017 12:29:52 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/?p=2225]]>So after a very long break, its finally finished…..

I first bought the fabric for this dress back in 2014, having stalked it in the internet for several years trying to get hold of it. Its called ‘In the beginning Winter Solstice’ by Jason Yenter. I fell in love with it and thought it would make an amazing Lolita dress when I first saw it online, but when I got hold of it I found it harder than I expected to get nicely co-ordinating lace. I wanted to go for gold to pick up the metallic highlights in the print, but back a couple of years ago it was not as easy as it is now to find nice lace on the internet, & its ruinously expensive to buy it in shops. So I found the right lace mid 2015, got the dress cut out and was all ready to go with it for xmas, when I had a massive mental block and didn’t know what the hell to do with it, or how to design it to do what I wanted (I had this sort of image in my head of what I wanted it to be, but couldn’t work out how to make it a reality.)

So I left it for a year, got going again with it after Halloween 2016, knew exactly what I wanted to do, it was all coming together lovely, & then I got the evil flu of doom that has knocked out so many people and was ill for 6 weeks, so got zero sewing done.

So then I was just determined to get the damn thing finished. There was a Lolita meet up I was going to at the end of January it was perfect for, so worked my butt off, got it finished, am very happy with the way it turned out, & then typically a freight train derailed at lewisham station 3 days before the meet, the trains suddenly got very unreliable, and after a nightmare journey home from Charing Cross one evening which took 2 hrs, one of which I was standing on various overcrowded trains (the journey should take 20 minutes and one should get a seat even in rush hour) I really couldn’t risk my health for that happening again on the day of the meet as the trains were still down.So stayed at home

Then after that I just got fed up with it, its February now, snowdrops are starting to come out, and I really wasn’t feeling very Lolita or up for an xmas dress. So it waited till this week to get photographed…

I’m reasonably happy with the dress, I’m just not excited by it, but I’m sure I’ll be in complete love with it again next Christmas. I’m not massively feeling it for my co-ordinate either, I wore a wig cuz my hair desperately needs to see a hairdresser to sort out the colour one way or the other, so wasn’t really suitable for Lolita, I think I need to wear it with a higher necked blouse and I think I probably need wrist cuffs and a cape of some sort, as tbh it was bloody freezing taking those photos. But given this is a ‘totally not the right season, I’ve just got to get some damn pictures!’ attempt. I think for next Christmas it’ll turn out lovely.

Close up of the fabric and bows….

Anyway, now thats over I am 1/2 way through my pink velvet sweatshirt, so very relieved, was totally on schedule but haven’t been able to sew this week as I got another random germ. But as that seems to be going away, I’m sure I’ll have something to show very very soon.

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2017/02/10/christmas-2014-3-years-late/feed/0euphoricstimuliimg_5980img_5994img_6028img_5992img_6001img_6029What I made 2016….https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/12/26/what-i-made-2016/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/12/26/what-i-made-2016/#respondMon, 26 Dec 2016 20:02:23 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/?p=2172]]>So I didn’t think I’d done great this year, but apparently its one better than last year, when I managed 10 items of clothing and no total flops. Of the stuff I made last year everything has been worn multiple times except for the Regency dress. But I have not been able to start Regency dancing again, even though the trains are running again in the last 3 months we’ve been too busy, & pretty much all the gothic fancy dress parties have died in London. The Goblin King was cancelled and White Mischief is ending on New Year, so there really isn’t much opportunity at all to wear that kind of stuff at the moment. I know times move on and what is counted as alternative changes, there is now an amazing feminist punk & riot grrl scene round Peckham and New Cross, and the Crusty/Gap Yah/hippy scene seems massive at the moment, so there really is plenty to do, but I am going to miss big dress up alternative parties, it was a style I was very into and I enjoyed sewing for them. There are several big steampunk or fairy or goth festivals outside London still though. I will not have a chance to go to any next year, but hopefully all my goth/fancy dress party dresses won’t go to complete waste.

Looking back at what I actually wore out of my 2015 makes though and what I made this year has made me think about what I actually intend to make next year. In January I may well finish my Lolita xmas dress, it has been on the go for 3 years now, the first year I bought the fabric but couldn’t find appropriate trimming, last year I cut out the fabric and then promptly hit a massive creative block and ran out of inspiration. This year I worked out exactly what I wanted to do with it, got sewing and was doing really well, until I got the evil flu of doom that has been doing the rounds this year. That was about 6 weeks ago now and I am still not well (I’m writing this tonight as I was supposed to be at a party, but I’m not feeling up to it, so I’ve packed Jon off without me and am using the time to do quiet things.). If I don’t feel utterly sick of Christmas when Jon goes back to work in January I will finish the damn dress so it doesn’t roll over another year, but after that I have a bit of a ban on the goth and the Lolita and the steampunk for the rest of the year, my wardrobe is well developed enough, and there is no damn point making things if you don’t have the opportunity to wear them.

So…..what I made this year…..

So of that there are no obvious flops so far. The Burgundy hat I made for Jon has stretched a bit. He still wears it, but it is not ideal, so at some point in the next few weeks its going to get chucked in the washing machine at 40 in the hope it shrinks a bit and doesn’t die in the process. So that might become a flop if it doesn’t work.

I am also still a bit unconvinced about the Colette Patterns Moneta Dress (The grey one with the big neckline) I have actually worked out how to wear it with a cardigan and my boots for winter and it looks very good and grungy layered. However I still think the fabric is awful and it now has a small patched up hole in it on the waistline where I tried to fix the whole elastic gathering thing not having worked as well as it should, and of course its such crappy fabric a tiny hole stretched right away. This has actually worked out ok, as I now wear the dress with a belt which looks so good with it, but I am not sure how much love its going to get next year. I have bought some wider and more expensive clear elastic though, so I can have another go with the same pattern but better fabric next year.

The Jennifer Lauren Vintage top has massively grown on me. I thought it was too young for me but its been on constant rotation with my other long sleeve tops in the washing and I’m even contemplating making another one. I would modify the bottom however as the riding up thing still annoys me and means its no good for layering in winter.

So yeah, next year I’m pretty busy. I’m going to the Sci-fi weekender in March, and have one thing to make for Jon although everything I wear will be pre-existing outfits.

Then two of my friends are having their stag/hen do and getting married in April, so I very much doubt I will have the energy in those months to do any sewing. September is also very much a write off as we already have a family event booked.

Another Tilly and the buttons coco dress, this one in yellow with beetles on it.

Two more of my favourite 1940’s dress pattern, one in the black cactus fabric, and one for a special occasion.

Jons costume for Sci-fi weekender

After that I’ll see what I feel like, though the obvious gap in my wardrobe this year was casual dresses for the middle of summer. That doesn’t sound like a lot of pressure, but Jons costume needs to be done for the end of March, and the rest are all needed as soon as possible, so I can’t really slack off too much.

Anyway, I am getting tired again now, so everyone have a VERY HAPPY BOXING DAY AND LOVELY NEW YEAR,and I am going to go back to sulking on the sofa with a glass of wine and box of tissues!

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/12/26/what-i-made-2016/feed/0euphoricstimuliHipster shopping in Lewisham -Cacti and toadstools.https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/hipster-shopping-in-lewisham-cacti-and-toadstools/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/hipster-shopping-in-lewisham-cacti-and-toadstools/#respondMon, 05 Dec 2016 16:28:34 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/?p=2118]]>I finally have my actual computer back! I installed a new hard drive all by myself and got it loaded up again with everything, and it works, & I am so damn happy, as finally I can do stuff like clear out my emails properly and post on here without worrying about my phone app crashing every 5 minutes. I am less happy about the fact all the iPhoto photos on my external hard drive are no longer compatible with the version on my laptop, so I still might have to take it in to the Mac-store and get someone to sort it after all. But you can’t have everything I suppose.

Anyway, apart from burgling my computer. I have been away for a week and then came down with the inevitable lurgy for this time of year. So I’ve been permanently under the weather and haven’t done much sewing.

However I decided to go for a walk to Lewisham this morning to get a bit of fresh air and exercise. As well as me being ill, London has been freezing cold and polluted as hell lately, so I haven’t got out much.

This may have been a bit of a mistake for my bank balance, though I am really happy with what I’ve come home with.

First the fabric stall.

Back in summer they had some cactus prints in and posted on Facebook about it, but I was ill that day, & by the time I got down there the next day they were all gone. I wasn’t that gutted though, cuz they were all on a white background. & me and white fabrics aren’t best friends.

But today I picked this up:

The lighting makes it look a bit shinier than it should, but it is black, & covered in cacti and succulents. I’m not quite sure which pattern to use with it yet, but I am dead excited by this. I need to use it soon though as it is excruciatingly hipster at the moment.

Oh yeah, I also picked up some grey jersey and a pretty floral fabric to add to the general stash (I don’t know why I do this, I am so badly out of room to store the damn stuff!)

Then I went to Tiger,

I was tipped off about Tiger being amazing for Christmas stuff last year, but then I didn’t make it there till after Christmas, and as they change their stock immediately afterwards and don’t have a sale, missed out on the pretty stuff completely. Seeing how much I bought this time round, maybe it was for the best!

Er yeah….

Clockwise from the top

They have been doing stuff with the stags on all year, & I loved it, but this is the first time they did a tray that was actually a sensible size, so I snapped it up.

The small thing with a stags head is a felt fridge magnet, it is so damn cute, & I needed another fridge magnet as there is a particularly large Japanese takeaway menu that isn’t properly stuck to our magnet board at the moment. So for that one at least there was an excuse.

Which is more than I can say for the gnomes, they are apparently paint it yourself, but I think I might leave them white to go with our bedroom decor. I have no idea why I bought them really, except they were £3 and there is a female gnome, I have a real thing for female gnomes.

The two boxes of small mushrooms are supposedly for putting on the tree, but I’m not sure, I might keep one of them for craft projects, I can see them going really well with a fairy wreath.

Talking of which the four wreaths at the bottom are actually for round candle sticks. They have mushrooms and berries on them. I have four lovely black candles I stole off my brother earlier in the year, that will go with the wreathes very well but I don’t have nice candle sticks to go with them yet. I’d really like old fashioned brass ones.

The grey man at the front reminded me of Gandalf, which is a good enough reason to buy anything.

The two in the pack together I just thought were quite cute and the lots of little dolls in the pack are a garland of elves apparently. I quite like the idea of a garland of small dolls.

And lastly the mushrooms in pots. They are candles apparently! I just thought that was adorable!I love fly agaric mushrooms and I love candles so its a perfect match. there were cactus ones as well, but apart from obviously I am going to have a dress, I’m not that into cacti as a hipster thing (we tried recently but they lived about 6 weeks) so I left them behind.

There is also loads of craft stuff for kids in Tiger at the moment. I had to stop myself coming home with about 3 different types of toy weaving looms and one of those knitting dolls, but really we do not have the space.

Anyway. instead of buying stuff I need to get on with making stuff, my xmas dress is halfway through, so hopefully that will be finished in then next two weeks. I don’t want it to go over to another year!

]]>https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/hipster-shopping-in-lewisham-cacti-and-toadstools/feed/0euphoricstimuliimg_5835img_5838Simplicity 1137 – the medieval goth dress.https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/simplicity-1137-the-medieval-goth-dress/
https://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/simplicity-1137-the-medieval-goth-dress/#commentsMon, 14 Nov 2016 09:48:29 +0000http://euphoricstimuli.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/simplicity-1137-the-medieval-goth-dress/]]>So about 18 months ago, Simplicity patterns decided to bring out a spate of Game of Thrones inspired patterns, which I viewed with interest, because although I have no intention whatsoever of doing straight Game of Thrones cosplay, some of the patterns looked like they’d make good medieval or goth dress basics if done in a different colour way.

Such a one is Simplicity 1137, based on costumes worn by the character Sansa Stark, it looks to me a bit of a mess on the cover, however looking at the technical drawings I thought it had good potential as a goth dress.

No one had reviewed it, which made me a little nervous, but I hoped that was down to the newness of the pattern rather than it being awful. However for this first version I decided to use random fabric off the local fabric stall rather than anything nice, just in case.

This actually worked out rather well, as the fabric I chose (largely on the basis that it was the only black fabric available in the necessary quantities – this dress is a massive fabric hog) turned out to be not only machine washable but had the right level of weight for the dress, which needs quite a heavy fabric, & did not need underlining, which is what Andrea Schewe, the designer suggests in her Blog post about the pattern.

Andrea Schewe’s blog is an invaluable resource btw if you are planning on making more recent Simplicity costume patterns. She writes about all the ones she designs and has guest posts by other designers, often there are tips, which you just wouldn’t know if you weren’t told that make the difference between a mess and a decent make. Such as this one about using a decent weight fabric or underlining it. When I had finished the folds of the dress hung beautifully!

For the sleeves of the dress I decided to use a black and red brocade fabric I picked up a while back and reviewed in This post. It’s by Sartor, a company who provided some of the fabric for Game of Thrones, so I thought it was appropriate, & bonus points I bought one of their cheaper polyester brocades which means like the main part of the dress, it is also machine washable, which is a massive advantage to me.

So…. I’d heard rumours that Simplicity had resolved their insane sizing issues with the costume patterns at least, so I cut a size 20, however I didn’t much worry about having massive seam allowences, and it fit perfectly!

There is a logical point after you’ve sewn the seams of the dress together and put in the zip but before you add the sleeves and facings to fit the dress properly, so I didn’t make a proper mock up. It fit extremely well with minimal adjustment. I did however wait till I’d fitted it to cut out the sleeves fabric, as I didn’t want to waste expensive fabric if the dress wasn’t going to look good.

It is extremely easy and a straightforward pattern to follow. I did it in three batches of about 3 hours each. The only issue I had was working out what the hell the hem is supposed to be doing. I think there’s supposed to be a slight train at the back, at least there was when I’d finished, but I’m not sure if there definitely meant to be.

Anyway, piccies of the dress….

I think it’s really flattering. I’m totally happy with it. Although I wore it for Halloween as a witch costume I think it’s professional and non-costumey enough looking that I could get away with it in a goth club.

I would make this again in a flash if I could think of a reason to, & I would definitely reccomend the pattern to other people.